2024 How many days so far?

[Tony Storaro]

Of course it's a zero it's my cycling off season.
And my ski days this season are still at zero two!
(but I have gotten two dirtbike refreshes done)

What’s that cycling off season you are talking about?
Unlike skiing, cycling is always on.

 

[Bill Talbot]

What’s that cycling off season you are talking about?
Unlike skiing, cycling is always on.

Not for me. I like being off the bike for 4 months every year. Then when the season starts (for me) I'm loving being on the bike again. Other wise I'd burn out on it quickly. Even in season I'm now a two rides per week rider, maybe three but that's not usual. Too much other stuff I want to do.

 

[Hankj]

It's the 22nd and I've ridden 21 days. 6 times outside, the rest Zwift.

The Tour de Zwift is a nice motivation in January. I do every stage at all three lengths:

C - short ride try to win sprints.

B - mid ride try to finish in top 20%

A - long ride try to survive till the end

 

[cantunamunch]

21 outside, gotta go make it 22, soz.

My goal is to be reasonably close to @Tony Storaro 's 170 by April 15th, i.e. the start of inline skating season, after which I am not going anywhere near a road bike unless its actively raining.

 

[robertc3]

21 outside, gotta go make it 22, soz.

My goal is to be reasonably close to @Tony Storaro 's 170 by April 15th, i.e. the start of inline skating season, after which I am not going anywhere near a road bike unless its actively raining.

I never knew inline skating had a defined season.

 

[cantunamunch]

I never knew inline skating had a defined season.

I'm sure there are places like SoCal where one can skate year-round; I rather welcome a hard date in order to commit to either skate or ski without confusion therebetween.

 

[Tom K.]

It's the 22nd and I've ridden 21 days. 6 times outside, the rest Zwift.

You have ridden 6 times.

 

[cantunamunch]

On the upside, managed to hold the handlebars for 11 miles yesterday. On the downside, I have to clean the chain daily as the roads are mustard yellow with grit.

 

[Hankj]

You have ridden 6 times.

Oh to be sure! Fake riding is not real riding

Interestingly though, on Zwift I ride significantly harder than IRL. If the weather's bad and I ride indoors a lot, I'm always significantly faster back outside.

I think this is for a couple reasons. On Zwift I end up surrounded by better cyclists than me, and then work to hang with those groups. Rarely happens IRL.

Zwift measures and incentivizes a lot. I'm not a fast cyclist, but I'm an okay sprinter. On big group rides like Tour de Zwift I'll sometimes win a (pretend) green sprint jersey. I often try, And so I'm making a lot of sprint efforts that I would never do outside.

Another thing about Zwift is that you never really freewheel. It puts more intense work into shorter periods of time.

The other thing about Zwift is that it's completely safe. I would never go as hard outside as as on Zwift. Outside you have to worry about crashing if you're going full-tilt. You have to worry about how your attention diverts when you're going full-tilt. On Zwift you can go full out or be really sucking wind and be completely safe.

Anyway, I prefer IRL riding, but am actually pretty stoked that the gaming aspect of Zwift is motivating enough that I'm happy to do it on days when I can't/don't want to ride outside. It's a great option if you live in a bad weather environment. I have banged hundreds of thousands of calories into my dedicated smart bike - definitely happy not to get even fatter over the winter. It's also fun when spring comes and you look around and nearly everyone riding outside has an ugly janky looking pedal stroke but I'm in mid season form

 

[cantunamunch]

LOL I take care of the not freewheeling part by riding the heaviest clunkiest fixie ever.

activating both 50rpm uphill leg press slogs and 140 rpm downhill buzz spinning - awesome.

Forgetting to shift - not great

 

[Hankj]

LOL I take care of the not freewheeling part by riding the heaviest clunkiest fixie ever.

activating both 50rpm uphill leg press slogs and 140 rpm downhill buzz spinning - awesome.

Forgetting to shift - not great

Yeah fixie is a work out! Im scared of them personally but they are cool

 

[cantunamunch]

Yeah fixie is a work out! Im scared of them personally but they are cool

LOL one of the things you _can't_ do on them that you can totally do on Zwift is weight forward high cadence out of saddle work (>90 rpm) with a strong hamstring snap. I like those workouts b/c they really get the hips mobile for other things.

 

[Tony Storaro]

I never knew inline skating had a defined season.

Eh, it is kinda tough in snow and ice and kinda not fun in rain so same as Road cyclin basically.

Unless you have some kind of indoors facility close by of course.

 

[Tony Storaro]

You have ridden 6 times.

Hell. Yeah.

 

[Tony Storaro]

LOL I take care of the not freewheeling part by riding the heaviest clunkiest fixie ever.

activating both 50rpm uphill leg press slogs and 140 rpm downhill buzz spinning - awesome.

Forgetting to shift - not great

I grew up on a fixie. No gears. You won’t believe how good I am at skidding. We had a mini-championships in the neighborhood. Find a slightly sandy road and it is WEEEEEE all day long.
I was subconsciously preparing for feathering the edges on ski I believe.

 

[cantunamunch]

Well I just lost like a week due to a galloping, rib-crushing, dizzying tidal wave of a chest and head cold. A week? I got reset to October, except I still have the hand injury

 

[Tom K.]

I've been off the bike for maybe more than 7 days? Skiing has been good (but April corn conditions in January) and fat biking has been warm and slushy and sloppy.

Seven days is a LONG stretch for me. If it freezes firmly tonight, I'll sneak out for some frozen slush/ice riding first thing tomorrow on the studded fat bike.

 

[scott43]

Yeah I've had pneumonia for a while now. On antibiotics and bed rest. Meanwhile trainer is waiting..

 

[Tony Storaro]

Daiym fellas seems most of us recover from some f*ck up or other. I haven’t been on a bike for like 2 weeks already due to the extremely dumb screw up on skis where I fell on my right side and the ribs still hurt.
On the bright side it still allows me to ski tho…

 

[silverback]

Day 50 yesterday, does this mean I’m at a half way point?

New mostly untracked powder-- 23
Old powder/variable/crud/slush-16
Hard/groomers/Icy--11